Capital sky train project lags behind schedule

The Hanoi urban sky train project is not likely to be completed before
its December 31, 2015 deadline, the Railway Project Management Board
admitted.

So far, only 320, or 76 percent, of the project's
pedestal footings, as well as seven foundations for its 12 train
stations and 336 of 806 concrete blocks, have been assembled and
completed.

The 19 households at the site where the future Cat Linh station will be located have yet to agree on compensation settlement.

This
alone has put the construction of the Cat Linh station seven months
behind schedule, and it will take up to a year to finish the building
after the site is cleared.

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban sky
train project was approved in 2008 with a total investment of 552
million USD. This was readjusted to 892 million USD, a 61.5 percent
surge, last April.

The construction phase is supposed to
be completed at the end of December 2015, and the trial phase is
supposed to begin in January 2016, said Nguyen Manh Hung, acting
director general of the Railway Project Management Board.

Construction
will have to be completed after the deadline that Deputy Prime Minister
Hoang Trung Hai and Transport Minister Dinh La Thang set for the
project. Hai and Thang expected the trial phase to begin in October 2015
and commercial activities to commence two months later, in December.

At
a recent working session, the transport minister ordered project
contractors to step up efforts to address issues that hindered
construction speed and submit a progress report to the ministry for
review.

The board must also prepare a detailed report on
what project categories require cost adjustments, along with the
specific reasons, Thang added.-VNA